On Tuesday, a fellow columnist wrote an open letter to Bill O’Reilly (a more apt title would have been “Are you there, Bill? It’s me, Erik.”) criticizing him for not defending traditional marriage. He posited that although Christians believe we should love and accept everyone, it’s OK to also believe that traditional marriage is between only a man and a woman.
He also argued that the federal recognition of gay marriage as a legal union would soon lead to, say, the federal government also recognizing polygamy, bigamy and incest.
This claim is obviously an outlandish argument that doesn’t belong in the discussion.
If Skipper bothered to pay attention to the oral arguments in court or familiarize himself with what overturning Proposition 8 would mean, he’d know that the debate is centered solely on extending marriage rights to same-sex couples.
He has no proof to uphold his speculative argument that gay and lesbian marriages will ultimately lead to polygamous and incestuous relationships becoming recognized as legal unions. Furthermore, it is highly insensitive and insulting for a man who claims to maintain Christian values of love and acceptance to group homosexual relationships with incest. It is not unlike Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, grouping homosexuality with bestiality and necrophilia.
So, Skipper, I ask you: What’s your beef with marriage between two consenting adults?
In an excellent piece The New Yorker posted Monday titled “Wedding Bells,” legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin discussed the Supreme Court’s 2003 case Lawrence v. Texas, in which the court ruled that Texas’s anti-sodomy law “demeans the lives of homosexual persons.”
It was inevitable, Toobin wrote, that the Supreme Court would face a decision regarding gay marriage. To recap, the Supreme Court hearings regard California’s Proposition 8, a measure that defined marriage as between only a man and a woman, and the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages even in states where they’re legal.
After reading Skipper’s column, one would come to the conclusion that gay marriage is going to be ratified in all 50 states tomorrow, but that, unfortunately, isn’t what’s happening.
“Still, the stakes in the two cases remain huge,” Toobin wrote. “Edith Windsor, the eighty-three-year-old plaintiff in the DOMA case, had to pay three hundred and sixty-three thousand dollars in extra taxes after her wife died, because, under the law, the federal government did not recognize their marriage. DOMA also penalizes gay people by preventing them from receiving Social Security survivors’ benefits, filing joint federal tax returns, obtaining green cards for their spouses, and enjoying hundreds of other rights and benefits. And, in addition to these practical considerations, there is the matter of the Supreme Court’s acknowledging the capacity of gay people for commitment and love.”
The Republicans’ only arguments against gay marriage — that it’s been illegal for so long and it makes some people uncomfortable — will not hold up in the Supreme Court. As they continue to flounder and fail to provide rational defenses of traditional marriage, the cases for the overturning of Proposition 8 and DOMA grow stronger.
Not even the Supreme Court, Toobin wrote, can reverse the march toward equality.
So, to people like Skipper, there’s only one solution for your discomfort with gay marriage: Get over it. If you don’t agree with gay marriage, don’t enter into one. It’s that simple.
Nothing I write in defense of gay marriage will be as eloquent and succinct as Louis C.K.’s thoughts on the matter, however. He said, people “try to talk about it like it’s a social issue. Like when you see someone stand up on a talk show and say, ‘How am I supposed to explain to my child that two men are getting married?’ I don’t know, it’s your sh***y kid, you f***in’ tell ‘em. Why is that anyone else’s problem? Two guys are in love, but they can’t get married because you don’t want to talk to your ugly child for five f***in’ minutes?”
Chloe Finch is a journalism sophomore at UF. Her column runs Thursdays. You can contact her via opinions@alligator.org.
